This invention pertains to a toy which is tethered upon the outer end of a cable of suitable strength and flexibility, the inner end of said cable being connected to a manually supported handle or similar device whereby the toy may be rotated about said handle at the outer end of said cable which extends in various ways and at varying distances from said handle.
Various types of tethered toys, including toy aeroplanes, have been developed heretofore. Typical examples of these comprise the subject matter, for example of prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,968,119 to Glass et al, dated Jan. 17, 1961, and 3,030,733 to Crawford, dated Apr. 24, 1962. In Glass et al, the nose end of the fuselage supports a propeller mounted on the forward end of a shaft which is rotated by means of an electric motor, operation of which is effected by batteries in a manually supported handle from which an electric cord extends to the motor of the aeroplane, whereby the propeller drives the aeroplane for orbital movement about the handle and, incidentally, includes noise-generating means simulating the sound of a motor. The patent to Crawford shows an aeroplane supported at one end of an extensible cable mounted upon a power-driven drum in the manually-held handle, whereby the cable may be extended to various distances and the centrifugal force caused by rotating the aeroplane about the handle causes the freely rotatable propeller to revolve, the power means in the handle also retracting the cable when desired.
Certain types of power-operated toy aeroplanes also have been developed which are supported by cable means, usually consisting of a pair of cables and these extend from a hand-held mechanism, especially for purposes of controlling the elevators and/or rudder of the aeroplane to simulate various maneuvers when the aeroplane is in flight and propelled by a power-operated propeller which is activated, for example, by a small gasoline engine. Examples of such control cables and aeroplanes of the type referred to comprise the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,559,050 to St. Clair, dated July 3, 1951, and 2,573,219 to Pursell, dated Oct. 30, 1951. In the St. Clair patent, the aeroplane is not disclosed but self-propelled toy aeroplanes are well-known as indicated by the Pursell patent. Another type of tethered toy is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 2,958,156 to Schmahl et al, dated Nov. 1, 1960, in which a hat may be worn by a child or other human, the hat having a central pedestal to which one end of a string or cable is secured, while a rotating ball having a torsion spring-controlled reel therein permits the ball to be extended various distances from the pedestal on the hat so as to rotate orbitally about said pedestal and the distance of the ball therefrom depends upon the speed of rotation of the ball about the pedestal, the speed of rotation varying the centrifugal force produced by wobbling the head of the operator at various speeds.
Noise-generating devices to simulate the sound of a motor not only are found in toy aeroplanes as in the patent to Glass et al, referred to above, but the same are also found in other types of toys, such as the wheeled toy comprising the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,008 to Ryan, dated Feb. 23, 1966, and in which a rotatable impeller having loosely mounted lugs or rings thereon engage a resounding diaphragm in a staccato-like manner to simulate the noise of a motor.
In accordance with the present invention, a relatively simple type of tethered toy aeroplane comprises the subject matter thereof which is of a different and improved type over the ones described hereinabove, details of the present invention being set forth hereinafter.